Killed in an encounter? Families add question mark

EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

MUMBAI, OCT 18: LIFTING the lid on speculation about the genuineness of police encounters, families of two suspects killed on Friday for plotting against the Lagaan team have claimed that they were innocent.

At a press conference organised by the Samajwadi Party this afternoon, Imran Khan’s mother Afroz said that her son used to run a grocery shop on Mohammed Ali Road in south Mumbai; he was neither involved in any crime nor was he ever called to any police station.

Imran was last seen on Friday evening, she said. When he did not return home till late in the night, Afroz went to lodge a missing persons complaint at JJ Marg police station.

The next morning, she was in for a shock when a constable came to say that Imran had been killed in an encounter and the family should claim the body from Babha Hospital at Bandra (west).

The father of the second suspect, Jaleel Ahmed, claimed that his son Abdul was a student of electronic engineering at Saboo Siddique Polytechnic and he was in no way linked to the underworld.

The parents of these suspects alleged that the entire encounter was false as the man that the police said they were targeting, Aamir Khan, was in the United States, not Khar, where the supposed encounter took place.

Imran Khan (22), Abdul Jaleel Ahmed alias Babloo (24), Tanveer (20) and Sanjay Singh (19) suspected to members of the Abu Salem gang were gunned down in what the police claimed was an encounter by Unit-II of the crime branch on Friday night at Khar. The police said they were planning to target some Bollywood personalities.

A Samajwadi Party spokesperson said that the Mumbai police has violated High Court orders while carrying out encounters. The Samajwadi Party does not want to make serious allegations against any indivdual officer unless there was satisfactory evidence, he added. ‘‘With regards to the evidence of extra judicial killing and abuse of police power, we will not hurl accusation irresponsibly,’’ said advocate Magid Memon.

The Bombay High Court had laid down mandatory guidlines to be followed by the police during encounters with gangsters.

When asked, senior police officers refuted the allegations made by the relatives and the Samajwadi Party members. They said they have recovered photographs of Lagaan director Ashistosh Gowarikar from the suspects linking them to notorious gangster Abu Salem.

The police also said that there was other incriminating proof which cannot be made public.

All necessary evidence would be furnished at the appropriate time, a senior police officer said.